STANTON -- Far from freeways, in barber shops and West Michigan main streets, presidential politics and small town values can be all but inseparable.

So it is with Luke Hevel, 26, who shared his thoughts about Barack Obama and John McCain on a quiet afternoon at his father's Montcalm County auto repair shop.

"I'm not racist by any means," said Hevel.

"There's a lot of black people that do a lot of good things in our country. But Barack Obama is just one of those people who rubs me the wrong way.

"I'm just not getting the vibe that he's ready to run the country."

Hevel called up an e-mail with a picture of Obama and two other Democratic candidates with an American flag behind them. The two have their hands over their hearts; Obama's are clasped in front of him.

"My dad was thinking of going for Obama. I sent it to my dad and he said, 'I guess I'm not voting for him.' "

Four days ago, McCain and Sarah Palin shared the stage at a Grand Rapids town hall meeting, and Palin again gave what has become a signature shoutout to small towns.

And in out-of-the-way places like Stanton, Saranac in Ionia County and Hopkins in Allegan County, it echoes as values like patriotism and religion wrestle with kitchen-table fears about jobs and the economy.

That struggle may decide the outcome in battleground states like Michigan.

Sitting at a counter at a bar and grill in Hopkins, waitress Sue Hamacher, 59, said she is working more than 50 hours a week and just scraping by. Tips are lousy.

"I don't blame the customers," she said. "They don't have the money."

Hamacher is leaning to Obama.

"I don't care about race and color. As long he can get the job done and look out for the little man."

She noted Hopkins, a village of about 600 with a handful of downtown businesses, is dominated by agriculture.

"The farmers make up the community. Some of them don't like Obama because he is colored. I hear that from the farmers."

That may be, but likely in private conversation. Many in these small communities look at Obama through a different lens: As the outsider, the intellectual, the political newcomer with an odd name and exotic background.

Past elections have not been encouraging for Democrats, as towns like Saranac and Hopkins voted 2-1 for President Bush in 2004.

Fox News analyst Frank Luntz said Obama has his work cut out for him.

"His language is not the language of blue-collar America," Luntz said in Grand Rapids this month. "It's the language of urban America."

Palin is pressing the issue in a key McCain campaign pitch, typically wrapping the mention of her Wasilla roots in tones of red, white and blue.

As she noted in her acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention, people in small towns "love their country in good times and bad, and they're always proud of America."

To small-town America, her blunt language and her flat accent sound like home.

William Labov, a University of Pennsylvania linguistics professor, told the blog, Swamppolitics.com, "She's a good example of the Northern speech with a Western influence." He pointed to Palin's dropped "g's" -- "shakin' up Washington" -- and pronunciation of "terrorist" as two syllables.

"I think she has got a lot of spunk, I'll tell you that. She ain't afraid to tell it like it is," said Lee Swainston, 59, owner of a general store in Hopkins.

"That stuff about a pit bull and hockey mom, yeah."

Swainston is convinced an upbringing in places like Wasilla transmits a value system folks in big cities might not understand.

"When you grow up in a small town you are more concerned about your neighbors," he said. "You can look at people more on your own level."

But at Bill's Barber Shop in Saranac, barber Jim Whorley, 64, was more concerned about economics than candidates' roots. Business is even down at his shop, where haircuts go for $8 and a dollar less for seniors.

As he trimmed the hair of Fred Weber, 67, he shared his fears about the future.

"Michigan is in bad shape. I think it's really bad all over," Whorley said. "I think a lot of it is that our work is going out of the country."

He said he is inclined to vote for Obama.

"He wants to get the economy going. I like that. But I wonder if he's got the experience."

As for McCain, Whorley is concerned he would be just another version of President Bush. "I really don't see him as presidential," Whorley said.

Customer Weber said the country is in a mess: The government spends too much and the economy has left some in the middle class behind.

"When I was 18 years old you could graduate from high school and get a job in a shop. Today, those jobs are gone."

He figures the Republican ticket is the best bet to clean things up, though he expects little from either party.

Weber said he considers Obama "smooth and fluid" but harbors doubts.

"So he gets himself elected to the state Senate and then the Senate," Weber said. "But what's he done? "

Across the street, factory worker Brian Wireman, 31, stopped in at the hardware store for a pair of work gloves.

Wireman said he is "lukewarm" to Obama but plans to vote for him.

"I was kind of surprised that he didn't pick Hillary Clinton as his vice president. I thought she had some gumption.

"But I'd vote for Obama, although he's not the most popular candidate in a small town. When it comes right down to it, it will be his plans that get him in."